From Boys to Cats
by reckless-rage
Summary: When one of Inui's Juices backfire and changes four members of the Seigaku tennis team into cats, how can the rest find a way to counteract the effects? Not to mention that the tennis match against Hyoutei is coming up...supposed humour, bit of crack..?
1. Inui Juice results

**A sudden whim of mine to write this, after reading a book about cats. Any resemblence to other fics on this site? I did not copy them, period. Anyone who wants to claim copyright to this storyline can message me POLITELY and I'll tear down this fic happily. Politeness makes the world go round, you know.**

**I'll take a break from writing Tenipuri Crossover as I'm stumped on that one. Hopefully when I'm juggling this one I'll come up with fresh ideas. Be kind with your critisism as I'm not too good at writing stories that actually mean anything. I'll love you to bits if you leave a review, and it might even make me write faster and update the next chapter quickly. (I know, it's blackmail. Or a bribe. Depends on how you look at it.)**

**That said, ONWARDS!**

Momoshiro stared incredulously at the jar filled to the brim with dark, slimy liquid.

"Buchou, surely it's illegal to brew this kind of juice?" He asked, staring from Tezuka to the juice's creator, the infamous Inui Sadaharu.

"My word is final." Tezuka's voice was flat and unemotional. "The last four people on the practice test warm-ups today will be drinking this as a punishment. Perhaps next time you will reconsider forgoing your practice during the last five days of celebration."

Momoshiro winced. What Tezuka said was true. During the past five days of celebrating New Year, Momoshiro had completely neglected following his training regime as Inui had very strongly _suggested _that he do, and on a regular basis. He, along with Ryoma, had binged outrageously on the burgers apparently offered at 'half-price' and proved too tempting to pass by. Still, now faced with the almost certain prospect of swallowing some disgusting gunk that Inui had concocted was too much for him to handle.

Ryoma, standing just behind him, had a sort of grimace on his face. The prodigious first year had apparently not done any training as well, having tagged along with his sempai.

"Maa, Tezuka, maybe it's a bit harsh on them." A light, melodious voice said pleasantly. "Inui's juices aren't…gentle on the stomach, either, and besides, it's the festive New Year. One can hardly fault them if they splurge a little."

"A little, Fuji?" Tezuka's voice was calm and dangerously sharp. "I _specifically _ordered everyone to stick to the training schedule and I _also _told them that I fully expected them to be in top shape when we reconvege. Now I find that not only they _didn't _keep to the regime, they _ignored _it completely."

Tezuka's sentences were beginning to have too many italics in it for Momoshiro's peace of mind. He willed himself to stay as silent and inconspicuous as possible. The next sentence out of Tezuka's mouth, if he knew his buchou well enough, would be to order them to run twenty laps (or possibly more) around the school if someone provoked him more.

Someone in the team sneezed.

"Twenty laps around the school, now!"

--

After completing the twenty punishment laps, Inui and Tezuka wasted no time in setting the Seigaku tennis regulars to work by making them perform several exercises that were aimed at improving the agility and speed of reactions. One of these included Inui and Tezuka firing off several tennis balls each at individuals, forcing them to dodge the incoming balls. The speed and intensity of the balls increased rapidly until three or more of the balls hit a part of the body. Inui assessed them on how many balls they managed to dodge, and how quickly they did so.

Momoshiro and Ryoma, needless to say, did poorly compared to the rest of the team. Ryoma did slightly better than his sempai, however, due to his smaller frame and lighter body. Momoshiro dodged the first twenty balls or so, then a rapid succession of three whacks threw him out of the game. Inui was giving Momoshiro very gleeful looks when the boy made his way off the court, apparently happy that he was going to have a beta-tester for his juice soon.

"At this rate, we'll end up in the hospital!" Momoshiro hissed to Ryoma while rubbing his elbow where one of the balls had struck.

Ryoma shrugged. "Better the hospital than the morgue, where we'll definitely end up if we taste Inui-sempai's juice!" He hissed back. Momoshiro conceded the logic in this, and tried to pick up his pace.

The final test of the day was, as usual, a two-kilometre run. The last four in the race would almost be certainly the ones to 'sample' the juice sitting so innocently on the bench nearby, and everyone was ready to fight until they weren't the ones. It was a dog eat dog world, after all. Only Fuji seemed unconcerned about all the tense energy in the air, but then again, who knew how a sadistic mind like Fuji's ticked.

Peeeep! There went the shrill whistle of Inui's, and while Tezuka stood by observing their performance critically, seven of them shot off the starting line. Kawamura gained the lead rapidly, due to the fact that he was brandishing a racket in one hand.

"That's not _fair!_" Momoshiro howled as the English-screaming tennis player dashed past him effortlessly. Despite his best efforts, he found that he was slowly falling behind the others, and that made him panic.

Even Ryoma began to pass him, although they were still among the last. Behind Kawamura (who seemed impossibly far ahead) was Oishi and Kaidoh, both of them taking it in a steady stride. Slightly behind them was Eiji, running for all he was worth, and Fuji followed close behind.

Damnit. He couldn't win at this rate. It was time to try a trick, and fast. Momoshiro could see the finishing line looming before him like a death sign.

"Watch out! Kirihara's coming!!" He screamed as loudly as he could in order to distract them. Later, he wondered to himself why he had chosen to yell Akaya's name. Perhaps it was that slightly demonic nature of his that made others pause. Anyway, it seemed to work - for a while, at least. Kaidoh turned with his eyes uncertain - and while he was looking for a Kirihara that wasn't there, he tripped over a thick stick that was lying in his way. He crashed heavily to the ground. Oishi hesitated, wondering if he should help his friend and risk the horror of Inui Juice, or continue, and that moment's hesitation cost him his second-place lead as Eiji shot past him.

"Nyaa!" Eiji stuck out a tongue as he sped past. It was nothing personal, of course. All they wanted to do was to avoid Inui's specially-formulated poison designed to kill them very slowly from the inside.

Oishi abandoned any thoughts of goodwill and picked up his pace, determinedly dogging Eiji. Momoshiro wanted to grin with delight as he pulled up with Kaidoh…and passed him. Then his smile faded as he found out that he was still in the last four. True, behind him was Kaidoh and surprisingly, Fuji, but that didn't omit the fact that he was _still in the last four._ And the finishing line was very close up ahead now, less than twenty metres ahead. Kawamura had already crossed the line, and was sitting relieved under a tree. Oishi and Eiji were straight ahead Momoshiro, and he put on a burst of speed, hoping to overtake them in a last minute sprint.

The last few seconds seemed to waltz past in slow motion. Momoshiro desperately trying to pull himself out of the last four. Ryoma following close behind his sempais. Fuji jogging nonchalantly behind everyone, an amused smile on his face. Kaidoh looking stricken as he tried to regain a hopeless lead.

Inui's whistle blew again to signal the end of the race. Momoshiro didn't even know whether he'd finally managed to make it past Oishi and Eiji, or whether he'd failed miserably in his attempt. He fell, panting hard, to the ground, groping until he found a cool towel someone held out to him. He mumbled a muffled thanks as he buried his face in the towel.

"The first person to drink - " Inui intoned eerily, making everyone look up. He carefully poured a whole cupful of the juice into a paper cup. "Fuji. Here you go."

Apparently, the mild brown-haired tensai was the last to cross the line. He smiled cheerfully as he took the cup from Inui. "Ah well." He shrugged. "I hope this tastes as…interesting…as your previous ones, Inui-san."

Momoshiro shuddered as the tensai seemingly drained the cup as easily as he would finish off a bottle of water, without the slightest wince or twitch of the face. Fuji licked his lips lightly after finishing the juice, as if considering its taste, then said nothing.

"Mmn." Inui muttered. He looked highly unsatisfied, then scribbled something in his green notebook which had appeared in his hands. Once or twice, he looked up, but Fuji didn't seemed to have changed at all. Finally, he sighed, and poured out a second cup.

"Next - _Kaidoh._" Only Inui could have sounded so sinister and ominous while saying a name. With the exception of Tezuka, perhaps. "Second last to cross the line."

Kaidoh made a sort of anxious hissing, gulping sound. Everyone else breathed a sigh of relief knowing that it wasn't them…yet. Only Kawamura and Tezuka felt thoroughly safe, the former being the first to cross the line, the latter having not participated at all.

Believing that he should at least bear his punishment as a man, Kaidoh took the cup from Inui without protesting. Still, his baleful eyes searched for and pinpointed Momoshiro. Baka Momo…if that sly boy hadn't tried to trick them, he wouldn't have taken his eyes off the path and tripped over something as trivial as a branch. He'd stuck vigorously to his regime, and here he was getting punished for it? The world was cruel, Kaidoh thought, and it was that thought that helped to brace his stomach for the onslaught of bacteria that Inui's juices most probably had, and none of them benevolent.

The thing that surprised him the most when he drank the juice was that it actually tasted _nice. _Kaidoh blinked, licked his lips thoroughly to make sure that it wasn't a hoax, then finished the drink down to the last drop. He was aware of the horrified looks Momoshiro, Ryoma, Oishi and Eiji were giving him, and he now knew how Fuji felt when he tossed back one of Inui's creations without a blink of an eye.

It was _fun_.

To add to the surprise, the juice didn't rumble restlessly in his stomach, or cause him to have such crippling stomach-aches that often he quite believed that he would literally die on the spot. Kaidoh handed the cup back to Inui, rather triumphantly, and Inui began to look slightly alarmed that no one appeared to be dying due to his juice. He scribbled away in his notebook, and sniffed at the remaining juice in the jar as if checking for defects or contamination.

"Well…" Inui straightened from his inspection and pushed his glasses up a little higher on his nose. "The third person to drink is…Ryoma-kun."

Ryoma scowled in defeat. Momoshiro began to breathe a little easier, began to allow a tiny sliver of hope through that he had actually passed from the bottom four destined to drink The Juice. True, Fuji and Kaidoh didn't show any adverse reactions, and that was a good sign. Still, Momoshiro had had too many encounters with Inui's Juices before, and he wasn't eager to make friends with it again anytime soon.

Ryoma, upon sampling the juice, wasn't as restrained in his reaction as Fuji and Kaidoh. He blinked enormous golden eyes, lowered the cup, and remarked critically, "Inui-sempai, I think you've given me the wrong juice. This one tastes _good._"

Again, Inui began thoroughly checking the juice left in the jar. Momoshiro glanced suspiciously at the juice. Tastes good? That slimy looking piece of gunk? He watched Ryoma finish the drink easily, without winces or anything that might indicate something negative. Even if he was the fourth and had to drink the juice…it couldn't be anything horrible if Ryoma, that little prat, actually _liked _it, right? And thus Momoshiro's mind worked this way.

Finding nothing wrong with his unique creation, Inui frowned and called out the last 'fated' name to Drink The Juice.

"Momoshiro." Although Inui sounded less than happy about having someone sample the juice.

Momoshiro accepted the cup tentatively, peering into the murky depths before tasting. To his infinite surprise, it tasted as good as Ryoma claimed it to be. He could even make out a hint of fried bacon.

_Yesss!! _Now, if only Inui made drinks like this more often! He tossed back the drink triumphantly, giving a thoroughly defeated Inui the empty cup. Mmmm! Bacon!

For a minute, there was utter silence among the team members. Kawamura, Eiji and Oishi gaped open-mouthed. History was being written in the Seigaku tennis team. _No one, _absolutely _no one,_ had ever survived Inui's Juices before, excluding Fuji. And now there were _four _survivors standing calm-as-you-please before them, even to the point of _smiling! _It was nothing short of miraculous.

Until the popping noises began.

Sudden tendrils of smoke crept among the team members, enveloping everything within a ten-centimetre radius in clouds of thick, opaque mist. Within seconds, no one could see anyone, and they began calling and blundering through the mist, clueless and baffled as to where the mist had come from.

"Eiji! Eiji!!"

"Nyaa! What?"

"Where are you?"

"Oof! K-Kawamura??"

"What - "

"BURNING!!!! GREAT-O MAN!!!" Oh. Someone must've passed Kawamura a racket.

There was a loud pop, louder than any pops they'd heard previously, and the mist cleared as suddenly as it had came. Oishi found himself sitting on the hard ground, blinking in confusion. He had one hand wrapped around Ryoma's hand, he remembered dimly, in order not to get separated. Why was he feeling something…furry?

Oishi looked down, and got the fright of his life.

He was holding on to a richly sleeked cat, with dark green fur and it was glaring at him with enormous, baleful golden eyes.

**TBC**

**Any spelling mistakes? Let me know and I'll straighten them out.**


	2. Voyage into the 'unknown'

**Ta-da! Second chapter of 'From Boys to Cats', typed out due to sudden flow of love for cats. Hopefully the plot will continue smoothly out of my head, as I have a vague sort of storyline but I will have to work on it of course. Due to a dream (which was partly a nightmare, bleh) I have a sudden inspiration plot for Fullmetal Alchemist but will not work on it until I have gotten most or half of this done. I have jotted down the ideas, however. All I have are creative inspirations that turn to flops when written down, anyway. I simply do not have the skill to do this kind of writing...haha. (So what am I doing here??)**

**Enough of the lengthy A/N!! Onwards!! (I seem to say that a lot.) **

"What do you mean you can't turn them back at once?" Tezuka's voice was dangerously low.

Inui flipped through his green notebook, furiously scanning for the recipe he might have noted down while making the highly unusual juice. "Well…maybe not _at once._" Inui admitted.

The shock that had ensued after finding out that four members of their highly acclaimed tennis team had turned into _cats _had been frantic to the point of panic. It was easy to tell that their four friends had been turned into cats, actually. The felines were very distinctly similar to their human selves - the cat that was Ryoma had deep glossy green fur, much like Ryoma himself. The second cat was jet black and its fur was short and rather spiky: Momoshiro, no doubt. It even hissed when the third cat, also a sable coloured one but with odd green markings (Kaidoh's bandanna, surely) got too close. And the last brown cat was sitting with its tail curled around itself, looking immensely proud and oddly satisfied. Everyone kept a slight distance from the last one, feeling rather unnerved that a cat could actually grin so widely while projecting a very sinister feeling.

"Inui's juices never backfired _this _badly." Oishi said worriedly. Ryoma, or rather, the cat that used to be the human version of Ryoma, was sitting in his lap, with his back ramrod straight and glaring at Inui. His whiskers were twitching furiously.

"Nyaaa….it's not _fair__…_" Oishi glanced sideways to see Eiji pouting. "_I_want to be a cat too, nya!"

But luckily for all of them, Tezuka had seized Inui's jug of juice once they had found out about their team members' condition, and emptied the whole jug into the ground. It was uncharacteristically Tezuka to act so hastily, but seeing the dire situation at hand, it was probably a clever move. Inui privately mourned the loss of what possibly could be the greatest invention since he was born, but intelligently decided to keep quiet about it when he saw the look on Tezuka's face.

"Tell me this isn't a permanent situation." Tezuka started pacing the length of his room. They had decided to smuggle the cats into his house while they tried to find a way to undo the disaster that had occurred. "They still have school tomorrow, and tennis practice, and - oh heavens - the tennis match against Hyoutei _next week. _I can't possibly go to Ryuzaki-sensei and say, 'Ano, Ryuzaki-sensei, some of the team members have been turned into cats, and could you _please _postpone the match?'!"

There was a silence in which Momoshiro and Kaidoh decided to attack each other, pouncing with their claws unsheathed and tiny fangs bared. One of them had apparently annoyed the other in some cat taboo, and Oishi leaped up in alarm, unseating a disgruntled Ryoma, and wrestled the two cats apart, giving a displeased Kaidoh to Kawamura while keeping a firm hold on Momoshiro.

"I'll have to do more research on this." Inui said after a while. "I have to try and recall what sort of ingredients I put in the juice, and find out which one of them is causing the reaction. Maybe then I can figure out something that can negate the effect."

"You'll have to do it by next week." Tezuka said shortly. "_Before _the match with Hyoutei."

"What do we do with them in the meantime?" Oishi asked. He motioned towards Ryoma, who had chosen to sit right in the middle of Tezuka's room, his back still stiffly erect and his tail angrily swishing the floor about him. His dark gold eyes were following Inui's every move, and Inui had an uneasiness that the vindictive little cat might very well put four sets of claws into him for putting him in this predicament.

"My dad won't want a cat in the restaurant." Kawamura said apologetically.

"My sister is allergic to cats." Oishi added.

"I'm going to be busy." Inui shifted his gaze.

"I wouldn't mind but my sister…" Eiji trailed off.

Tezuka forced himself not to sigh. It looked like he was going to be stuck with four furry felines (two at each other's throats the whole day, one who looked like it wanted nothing better than to bite Inui, and the last…Tezuka didn't even want to think about it) for the next few days…until Inui found a cure to this whole mess, that is.

"The toilet - " Tezuka gave in and pointed firmly, "is out _there._"

Four pairs of cat eyes blinked, and Tezuka could sense a headache waiting for him in the next few days or so.

--

Ryoma was prepared for the worst when he was forced to drink one of Inui-sempai's concoction, but he certainly never expected to turn into an animal. Now, he sat, stiffly dignified, as his sempais (those that still retained their human forms) discussed what to do with them. Once or twice, he wondered whether he was fast enough to dart across the floor, nip Inui-sempai's ankle hard, then dash back before anyone caught him. He found himself entertaining the idea, but abandoned it. He wanted Inui-sempai well and healthy to concentrate on solving the problem of turning them back into humans.

His ears pricked up as his sempais came to a decision about them above him. That was one thing he hated: he was already short as a human, but as a cat, he practically had to crane his neck to look up into Eiji's face, or Oishi's. the one consolation was that Momoshiro was now about the same height as him (if not the same width) and could no longer hook an arm around his neck, something Ryoma disliked very much.

"…is out _there._" He dimly heard someone say, and he looked up at Tezuka expectantly. Apparently, his buchou was going to take care of them. Interesting.

"Ne, Ryoma, what's going on?" Momoshiro complained, plopping himself down on the floor beside Ryoma. He began washing an ear quite vigorously.

"Tezuka-buchou's going to take care of us until Inui-sempai finds a way to turn us back." Ryoma told him absent-mindedly.

"It's not bad, being a cat." Momoshiro observed lazily as he rolled over on his back. He wriggled a bit more, trying to get at an itchy spot on his lower back. "No school, no tennis practice, no homework."

"No burgers." Fuji said blandly from behind them and Momoshiro yowled, leaping up.

"I'd forgotten." He said sheepishly when Tezuka gave him a cuff around the head to shut him up. "Ow! Buchou!"

"We'd get milk, though." Fuji added, glancing sideways at Ryoma. "Who's going to take care of _your _cat, Ryoma-kun?"

Now it was Ryoma's turn to leap up, eyes wide. "Karupin! I can't leave her for goodness knows how long until Inui-sempai cures us!"

"You'd better let them know." Fuji tossed his head lightly towards their team members, who were preparing to leave. "Or they'll be gone."

Desperately, Ryoma raced across the floor, crashing into Oishi's legs in a most undignified manner. He pawed at the shoes, hoping that the sensitive Vice-Captain would know what he meant. _Karupin. _He tried to say, knowing that he was mewing plaintively (to his human-sempai's ears anyway) and he hated the shrill tone of it.

Oishi paused. "Ryoma has a cat, doesn't he?"

_Thank goodness. _Ryoma knew that if anyone could understand the gibberish that was coming out of his mouth, Oishi would.

"He must be worried for his cat." Oishi bent to pick Ryoma up so that their eyes were level with each other. "I'll drop by your house and check on your cat, tell your dad to look after her, all right?"

Ryoma nodded. Quickly, with a deeper instinct that was not his, he stuck out a pink tongue and licked Oishi's nose.

Later that night, Ryoma could be seen trying to wash out his tongue with hot running water in the bathroom. Tezuka's parents had been most alarmed at this human characteristic of the cat, and Tezuka had to calm them down by explaining that his friend (to whom the cats apparently belonged to) had trained them to utilize the bathroom freely.

--

"I'm_huuuuungry._" Momoshiro whined as he scratched reflexively at his belly. The black, stiff-haired cat was lying on his back, paws straight up in the air, and his deep violet eyes were now staring at the ceiling. "I haven't eaten a burger since _yesterday_."

The four cats were lying in various spots in Tezuka's room. The lawful occupant of the room was now currently at school, where he was probably explaining to Ryuzaki-sensei about the suspicious absenties of four of their key players, since a glance at the solemn and dull-looking clock on the desk told Ryoma that it was time for tennis practice. Their buchou wasn't just solemn and strict at school - even his personal bedroom reflected that with its sombre colours. It was a boring room, Ryoma decided, without even a single poster of some sort of tennis star adorning the wall, like he had in his own room.

"We could always go out for a walk."

Momoshiro leapt up with a strangled yowl, Ryoma's fur stood on end, and Kaidoh bristled visibly before his feral instincts realized that it wasn't a threat. Fuji had ghosted silently among them without making so much as a sound. Ryoma reflected sourly that being turned into a cat had probably given the tensai several extra skills that he'd rather not his sempai have. Still, Fuji had lost the advantage of height, right? So that should even the scales a little…

"Go out where for a walk?" Momoshiro replied irritably once he'd resettled back in his position after being scared out of it by his senior. "Tezuka-buchou locked the door behind him, if you hadn't noticed."

"Oh, that's easy to unlock." Fuji said affably. "I've observed Saeki's cat do it all the time."

"But once we get out where do we go?" Kaidoh asked. His voice had an odd lilting hiss to it, rather like the way he sounded when he still retained his human form. It sounded normal on his human self, but rather peculiar in the form of a cat.

"For a walk." Fuji was coolly unperturbed by the mysterious answers he was giving. "Shall we go?"

Ryoma perked up in interest as Fuji leapt delicately up onto the chair closest to the study table that Tezuka made use of to study. He used this to hop up to the table itself. His tail swishing from side to side as he walked down the length of the table, Fuji finally reached the doorknob that was conveniently positioned just a few centimetres above the table, and just off the side. Reaching out with one velvety soft paw (which no doubt contained four or five very sharp claws) Fuji coaxed the lock open. There was an audible click, then with a satisfied purr from Fuji, the door swung noiselessly open.

"Let's go." Fuji leapt down from the edge of the table and pattered out calmly. After a moment's hesitation, everyone else followed suit, partly because they didn't know what else to do, partly because they didn't want to let Fuji out of their sight. Goodness knows what the sadistic little cat might try if they didn't at least keep an eye on him.

…At least, that was what they reasoned.

The house was impressively empty as they padded their way through to the front door. Tezuka's parents were presumably at work, for which they were thankful for as it made their 'escape' relatively easier. Momoshiro paused in the kitchen to try and rummage up some sort of edible food, but failed to get into the pantry and the refrigerator. Ryoma had to barrage into him at full run to get him to turn his attention away, at least for a minute. Fuji's claws did the trick in convincing the hungry cat to follow them, and not to raid the kitchen of their host.

Again at the front door, Fuji admirably unlocked the door with amazing ease. He did make sure the front door was closed behind them, though. As he'd explained, he wouldn't like his host's house being burgled while they were 'on a walk'.

The streets and sidewalks of the city were largely different, to a cat's perspective. Ryoma found himself confused about roads that should have been familiar, and noticed tiny little details around him that weren't quite so clear before. When he mentioned this to Momoshiro, the black cat shrugged and commented that it was probably because Ryoma himself was even tinier than before. Being a little sensitive about his height, (or lack of it) Ryoma promptly pounced on Momoshiro and the two cats began yowling enough to attract the attention of passerbys. Fuji and Kaidoh had to hustle the pair behind a tree and silence them before any of the passerbys could come close enough to notice that none of the cats had collars or name tags on them.

"For goodness sake, surely you don't want to end up in some sort of animal shelter home while they try to figure out who you belong to, do you?" Fuji asked mildly, positioning himself right in the middle of Ryoma and Momoshiro. "Just try and make yourself inconspicuous, and I'll get us some lunch."

Momoshiro perked up at the word 'lunch'. "Where are we going? What are we going to eat? Burgers?"

Fuji gave a smile that Ryoma didn't quite like.

"We're going to Hyoutei, of course."

**TBC**

**Again, any typos, please tell me and I will try to fix them ASAP.**

**Reviews are extremely welcome (duh..) **


	3. At Hyoutei

**Saa, chapter 3 of 'From Boys to Cats' is up! I must admit I have lousy descriptive skills. From boys to cats - what sort of title is that??**

**Anyway, thank you to those who have reviewed and put this story on your Favourites and Alerts. I hope I continue to be able to write decent fanfics!**

**Onwards!! **

People passing by gave the four cats an odd look and an occasional smile, but luckily none of them tried to pick the cats up or try to identify them. Fuji, of course, was leading the way - even as a cat he still seemed to retain superb directional skills. The other three cats followed nervously behind.

Momoshiro had never realised that the city was quite so big before. He had to dodge several legs as their owners hurried past without even acknowledging the presence of a cat beneath them. Momoshiro was highly tempted to nip one of them on the ankles just as a warning, but seeing his three companions rapidly drawing away ahead of him, he hastened his pace.

"Fuji-sempai, why are we going to _Hyoutei_ to get lunch?" Ryoma asked as he determinedly dogged (pardon the pun) his sempai, weaving in and out of the human legs around them. "Isn't Hyoutei a school?"

"Yes." Fuji replied, unperturbed.

"Then how are we going to get _lunch _there?" Momoshiro asked confusedly.

Fuji finally stopped and wheeled around to fix Ryoma and Momoshiro with his oddly closed cat eyes. "Because Hyoutei is a highly exclusive school catering to extremely rich or talented students." When both of the cats stared at him in incomprehension, Fuji sighed. "And_ because_ they're rich they can afford to buy lunch for four stray cats, ne?"

"And is that the only reason why we're going to Hyoutei?" Ryoma asked cautiously. He had learned ages ago not to take anything that Fuji said at face value. An impossibly wide grin unfurled across Fuji's face.

"Would you like to go to Rikkaidai instead?" He purred.

Ryoma's fur prickled when Fuji mentioned Rikkaidai, thus leading his train of thought to Kirihara Akaya. "No thanks." He said flatly. He began washing an ear vigorously in an attempt to get his sleek dark green fur back in place. His companions, having been imbued with the same primitive instinct to groom in times of trouble, joy, sadness (in other words, all the time), waited patiently until Ryoma managed to lick the last strand into obedience. Once that little bit was done, they proceeded on their way, with, again, Fuji in the lead.

Hyoutei's school building was _enormous._ Gargantuan. Huge. Compared to it, Momoshiro felt infinitely small. He hurried to one side of the school gate and students milled in and out of the school, obviously on their lunch break of sorts. The gardens and lawns of the school looked as if it had been neatly ironed and dyed a rich green, and none of the cats felt like stepping on it. Instead, they began strolling through the school as if they rightfully belonged there, and kept their eyes open for potential donors of lunch.

Fuji was correct about students being rich enough to purchase (or throw away) lunch to four stray cats. Within twenty minutes of encountering six separate students, Momoshiro had wolfed down two tuna sandwiches, a small bag of chips, the leftovers of a rich chocolate cake, and a handful of fries which an obliging student had dropped on the path for them. Ryoma had snagged the remains of a fast-food burger (and fought with Momoshiro over it) and Kaidoh picked away at a banana which a student had generously donated to him, having taken a fancy to the dark, green spotted cat.

"Fuji-sempai was right - Hyoutei does have a lot of things to eat." Momoshiro admitted as he stuck his admirably long pink tongue out and licked the crumbs off his nose and face. "I'd live here if I could."

"You would - you ate the most." Ryoma said sourly. He was still hungry even after the burger, and seeing Momoshiro pounce on anything edible made him slightly irritated. He saw another student wandering his way, and purred as he saw the student bend to get a closer look at him, rewarding his purr with a few fishcakes, which he devoured before Momoshiro had a chance to get close.

"Since when did the school have cats around?" A familiar voice asked, and Ryoma howled in protest as human hands slid around his belly and lifted him up. He saw the ground falling away to an alarming distance, and quickly twisted his head to look away, and into the face of the student who had picked him up.

It was Chotaroh.

The gentle, grey-haired lad was looking at Ryoma with a puzzled look on his face. Ryoma looked back on the ground and saw that Momoshiro had bolted, presumably to find Fuji and Kaidoh. At least, he hoped so.

"Ne, Shishidoh, come and have a look at this cat." Chotaroh called. Ryoma began to squirm.

"Put me down!" He said indignantly, but Chotaroh, mistaking his protest, began to stroke him. Ryoma's cat side began to purr, a deep throaty purr that rumbled in his chest with pleasure as Chotaroh's firm hand found its way down the side of his head. Ooh, Chotaroh definitely knew what a cat liked, Ryoma reflected, as he pushed his head against his hand in order to obtain more pats.

"What are you doing with that stray?" Shishidoh's bored voice asked, and Ryoma hissed with displeasure. He dimly realised that he was acting more and more like a cat, and he didn't like that one bit.

"Now you've made him mad." Chotaroh reproached. He continued scratching, and Ryoma deigned himself to settle back in those comfortable arms, closing his enormous golden eyes in contentment. "Isn't he adorable?"

"Whatever. Atobe told us to get to the tennis courts as quickly as possible, and you're wasting time patting a stray."

Again, Ryoma's hackles rose defensively.

"This cat's intelligent - see how he reacts every time you call him a stray? I think he belongs to someone, even though he doesn't wear a collar."

A collar? Ryoma yawned. Don't joke with me. I'm not a _pet, _I'm one of the tennis genuises at Seigaku, hello. I don't need a collar to identify myself.

"I'll take him along to practice." Chotaroh decided, and Ryoma's golden eyes shot open. "Somehow I just don't feel comfortable leaving him alone here. His owner might be looking for him."

"I don't have an owner." Ryoma told Chotaroh blandly, knowing that the boy couldn't hear him anyway. "But yes, take me along to tennis practice. I want to learn every single one of your moves."

Chotaroh gave him an odd look, and Ryoma was suddenly plunged into doubt as to whether the boy could understand him. But the moment passed, and Ryoma found himself being carried off in the boy's arms.

"Let's go then." Chotaroh said, and Ryoma agreed whole-heartedly.

Ryoma had never been, personally, on to the Hyoutei tennis courts before, and he looked around in interest from the vantage point that was Chotaroh's arms. There were quite a few people wearing the Hyoutei uniform milling about on the courts, although they weren't playing tennis. If Tezuka-buchou was here this instant, he would probably order all of them to run twenty laps for obstructing proper tennis matches, Ryoma mused. His cat whiskers twitched slightly when Chotaroh put him down beside his tennis bag.

"Stay here, okay? Atobe will be coming soon, and I don't think he likes cats particularly much."

Ryoma bared his tiny teeth in a cat grin. What, Atobe didn't like cats? What a particularly interesting bit of fact.

Chotaroh noticed the grin, and reached over to pat Ryoma's head. "No, whatever you're thinking of, it's not a good idea."

"Oh? And how do you know it's not a good idea?" Ryoma said meaningfully. It came out as a disgustingly delicate meow which Ryoma hated but could do nothing about. In order to cover his embarrassment, Ryoma licked one paw thoroughly and began to wash his ears, first the right one, then turning his head to get at the other. Today seemed to be the day to lick his fur into obedience, Ryoma noticed wryly as he forcibly licked down a tuft that threatened to stand up on end.

"Ah, Atobe-san." He heard someone say, and he looked up in interest.

The current Hyoutei captain came striding down the length of the tennis courts, immaculately groomed and presentable as always. Ryoma reflected that Atobe would in all likelihood make an excellent grey Persian, and resolved to get Inui to make more of his Juice so that he would at least have the satisfaction of knowing that someone else other that the Seigaku regulars had experienced the horror of being in the Seigaku tennis team with Inui as their manager.

"What is this dirty little furball doing here? Kabaji, take it away." Came the imperious voice. Ryoma flattened his ears and hissed. Him? Dirty? _Little?_ If Atobe wanted a new face arrangement, then Ryoma was more than happy to oblige.

"Ano, Atobe-san, it's just a stray cat. I brought him here." Chotaroh confessed, quickly scooping Ryoma up before Kabaji could lay hands on him. "He's really clean, look. I thought maybe we'd meet his owner somewhere, and I couldn't just leave him wandering around."

"That's right, listen to him." Ryoma yowled indignantly. "One more word about me being dirty or little and I'll scratch your face to ribbons, captain or no captain. Hmph!"

"This cat gets irritated easily, Ohtori-kun." Shishido observed, bending down to stare Ryoma in the face. Ryoma hissed back and swiped at him – missing only when Chotaroh pulled him back.

"It'll be all right." Chotaroh said hastily. "Right, neko-san?"

"Well, only for you." Ryoma grumbled, fluffing out his tail appropriately and wrapping it around himself. "Get on with the tennis already."

Atobe seemed to be thinking along the same lines. He turned, promptly forgetting the cat. With a snap of his fingers, everyone else who was not part of the Hyoutei tennis teams filed quickly and silently off the courts. Ryoma watched with some appreciation at the efficiency of the whole process.

"Right. We're going to have a match against Seigaku soon. Although it is not a formal match that will affect our rankings in the regionals, Ore-sama still wants top performance from everyone. That means not losing to that poker-faced captain's team, do you hear me?"

Ryoma had to stifle a snort of laughter. Poker-faced? How appropriate.

Atobe pointed an imperious finger. "Shishido and Chotaroh, the two of you will be playing doubles two." Another point. "Gakuto and Yuushi, you're playing doubles one." Point. "Hiyoshi, singles three." Point. "Jiroh, singles two. And of course, Ore-sama will be playing singles one."

"We should tell Jiroh about this later." Shishido muttered to Chotaroh. "He'll most probably be facing that tensai everyone was talking about. Mou, Jiroh will be so hyper it'll be tiring to see him bouncing off everything in sight."

Chotaroh laughed weakly. "Saa..."

The tennis drill began then, and once again Ryoma was deposited on the ground. He fluffed up his fur again irritably, wishing that these whimsical humans would make up their mind whether to cuddle him or leave him alone. It was such a pain to have to neaten his fur every time someone picked him up then put him down.

Hyoutei's tennis practice was extremely interesting. Ryoma saw quite a few familiar moves – like the Higuma Otoshi that Fuji-sempai himself used. He noticed that Chotaroh's Scud Serve had gotten slightly faster and more accurate as well, and made a mental note to inform Inui of that fact. He felt rather like a spy as he sat there, watching the fast-paced tennis games and the steady, almost hypnotic_ pock, pock, pock _of the balls hitting the hard and unyielding courts.

When Atobe declared a half-hour break, Ryoma was so intrigued by the tennis matches that he wanted, very badly, to get out there and maybe challenge Atobe to a game. Instead, being the cat that he currently was, his fur bristled with impatience and even Gakuto noticed the change in him when they came over to get their drink bottles.

"Hey, Chotaroh, your cat looks like it wants to play tennis as well." He observed as he rummaged around his bag for his drink bottle.

"He does, doesn't he?" Choratoh admitted.

Yuushi bent down to examine Ryoma closely. Ryoma shrank away from him, annoyed that his private space was being invaded.

"What are you looking at?" He retorted rudely although he knew that Yuushi wouldn't understand him. There were quite a few advantages to being a cat – Ryoma could cuss all he like and no one would be any wiser.

"Is there anything wrong?" That was Gakuto's muffled voice.

"Hmm?" Yuushi was staring quite intently at Ryoma, and the cat was beginning to feel uncomfortable. "No, nothing much. It's just that this cat looks awfully like someone...someone from Seigaku...don't you think?"

**TBC**

**Man, this chapter is shorter than the previous two, don't you think so? It's not very interesting either... :( Still, even I wonder what will happen to the cats...I haven't planned anything, sadly. Please review and let me know what you think, maybe I might get inspirations that way..? **


	4. Back home

**Well! A slightly longer chapter than the previous one, at least by a couple hundred words or so. It was originally going to be the shortest chapter so far, but I wracked my brains and stretched it out. I'm sorry for taking quite some time to update this, and now my attention will be going back and forth this story and Tenipuri Crossover. I WILL NOT abandon this while working on TC, even though a reviewer for TC said that I couldn't concentrate on one fic and finish that before turning to another one. I realize that the earlier edition was ambiguous...no, scratch everything. I'm making no sense. This was a plot bunny anyway. -pokes plot bunny to make it squeal-**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter as well! -bows- Onwards!! **

As if on cue, all of the Hyoutei tennis members (excluding Jiroh, who had promptly fallen alseep on a bench) turned to stare at the cat. Ryoma was starting to feel like a specimen on display as he was skewered by incredulous stares.

"Now that you've said it..." Gakuto came to stand beside Yuushi, a finger pointed at Ryoma, "He looks like that first year from Seigaku! You know, the one everyone's been talking about, how he's a first year brat that managed to get on to the famous Seigaku tennis team."

Brat? _Brat? _Ryoma shot to his feet indignantly. He was _not_ a first year brat! He hissed angrily, his ears flattening against his head.

"Maa, it's just a coincidence." Chotaroh laughed uneasily. "I mean, Echizen-kun is...a _boy,_ right? This is just a stray cat that I picked up when he was wandering the Hyoutei grounds."

For once, Ryoma didn't object to someone calling him a stray. He wanted the attention off him, then perhaps he could attempt to escape and find his sempais. Yuushi's guess was a little too close to the truth to suit him. They couldn't do anything even if they found out the truth – it was too farfetched to believe, and besides, who'd ever heard of someone ransoming a 'stray' cat?

"Still, the similarities are quite uncanny." Shishidoh poked Ryoma in the side. "Can you talk?"

Ryoma swiped his front claws across Shishidoh's hands as a reply.

"Shishidoh-san, your hands!"

"I _told_ you not to provoke the cat."

"It's your own fault." Gakuto shrugged. "If you want, take a picture of the cat, then. You can show it to that first-year when we meet him for the match."

"Oh, good idea." Yuushi rummaged about in his bag then produced his cell phone, which had an inbuilt camera. "It'll be interesting to see his face when I show him this."

Ryoma glared sullenly at the camera lens, wishing that he had never come to Hyoutei. The tennis had made up for it a little, sure, but it still wasn't worth it to have the Hyoutei members poking him and taking pictures of him, for goodness' sake.

Atobe came back at this moment, and declared the break over. Thankfully, everyone's interest in the cat's similarity to Seigaku's most recent and famous rookie diminished instantly, although Chotaroh gave him a rueful pat on the head. Kabaji had to shake poor Jiroh awake as Atobe got them started on volleys.

Ryoma watched as they went back to training. It was time to sneak off quietly and unobtrusively, he thought. Giving his limbs a bit of a stretch, he glanced at the ground from the bench he was perched on. It seemed far for a cat his size, but confident in his newly acquired 'nine lives', Ryoma took a daring leap – and landed, of course, on all four legs.

"Psst! Ryoma!" A cat's hiss sounded, and Ryoma looked aside irritably. Momoshiro was crouched under the bushes just beyond the tennis courts, his tail swishing from side to side. Kaidoh and Fuji were nowhere to be seen, or they might just be lying out of sight until Ryoma rejoined them.

"Where were you?" Ryoma asked crankily as he trotted over to join his sempai, careful not to let Chotaroh or anyone else spot him. "Yuushi-san came very close to finding out the truth. He said I looked like Ryoma Echizen from Seigaku!" He appropriately omitted the 'first year brat' phrase out of his recounting.

"Really?" Momoshiro sounded impressed. He moved aside to allow Ryoma to squeeze in underneath the bush. "He really is a tensai then."

"Hmm." Fuji's voice sounded so close to Ryoma's ear that he very nearly yowled out loud. As it was, his fur shot up on end for the upteenth time in the day.

"_Fuji-sempai!!_" Ryoma protested, baring his teeth in a grimace. "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"I didn't." Fuji replied mildly, his light chocolate fur immaculately groomed. "I was here all along."

"Whatever." Ryoma grumbled, settling down to lick his fur again. He was going to cough up a massive furball later, he was sure of that. "We got what we came for. Can we go back now?"

A slow smile spread eeriely across Fuji's cat face. "Of course. The only problem is, I seem to have forgotten the way _back_to Tezuka's house."

"_What?!_"

--

The practice match ended roughly two hours later, and Chotaroh came back to the bench puzzled.

"Eh? The cat's gone." He said in disappointment. "I hope it doesn't get run over by a truck or anything..."

--

Ryoma sneezed. Everyone else paused to look at him critically, and he swished his fluffy tail nervously.

"What?" He asked defensively.

"You sneezed." Fuji stated calmly.

"So?"

No one bothered to say anything else. They all followed Fuji nervously, the four cats weaving their way in and out of the human traffic that congested the sidewalk. Kaidoh's whiskers twitched once.

"Fuji-sempai, are you sure we're going the right way?" He questioned when he noticed that they had passed the same pink billboard about three times before.

"Well, I did say that I'd forgotten the way back to Tezuka's house." Fuji replied, seemingly unconcerned as his head went up to sniff the air lightly. "Things look so different when you're a cat, doesn't it?"

"Let's try some other way than the path we've been following the last ten minutes." Ryoma suggested. Momoshiro pounced happily on a stray leaf that happened to flutter by, paying no great interest to either his companions or the surroundings. "How about this way?"

Fuji didn't object, so the four cats padded their way down a less busy sidewalk that branched off the main road. Kaidoh's dark fur with green markings attracted a lot of attention from passing people, and more than one tried to pick the cat up to have a closer look. Kaidoh warned these overenthusiastic people off with a baring of his teeth, and when one of the humans hurriedly got out a cellphone to call the nearest animal shelter for dangerous cats, the four cats fled hurriedly, vanishing with a graceful bound.

"Baka Mamushi! See what you got us into!" Momoshiro hissed as they watched, safe under the cover of a leafy bush (where they seemed to be hiding out a lot), the human replace his cellphone as he realized that the cats were gone. "We could've gotten locked up!"

"Pshhh." Was Kaidoh's cranky reply. The poor cat was tired and all Kaidoh felt like doing was crawling back to Tezuka's house where, at least, he knew that Tezuka couldn't unknowingly send them off to an animal shelter.

Fuji stared silently at them for a long time.

"What?" Ryoma asked cautiously.

"I think we should go this way." The brilliant cat-grin was back on Fuji's face again, and he shook his fur out as they left the safety of the bush. Amazingly, Fuji's memory didn't 'fail' him this time as the cats stared up at their buchou's modest and neat house.

"We're back!" Ryoma was undeniably relieved. He'd had enough of a 'walk' with Fuji-sempai, and was more than ready to hurl his little cat body on to one of the soft sofas that he'd spied earlier that morning.

Momoshiro, however, was still staring at the front door.

"How are we going to get in?" He asked finally, scratching himself under the chin.

"Well...the same way Fuji-sempai got us out." Ryoma replied finally.

"But Fuji-sempai unlocked the front door from the inside by jumping on that tall decorative table that was just beside the front door." Momoshiro pointed out. "There's nothing to jump on here, this side of the door."

Momoshiro was, sadly, right. Everyone's gaze went to Fuji for an answer.

"I daresay we can get in all right." He replied easily. "Tezuka-buchou's coming up the street, anyway."

It was with extreme alarm and slight trepidition that Tezuka faced one supremely smug and three exhausted cats sitting on his porch, all staring at him with huge, solemn eyes. He felt rather like a specimen under scrutiny as he fished around for the front door keys in his pocket. He had just returned from a long and gruelling lecture from Ryuzaki-sensei, and did not feel up to wondering why the four cats he had left in his room were now sitting _on his front porch, _calmly awaiting his return. And he did not know why three of them looked as if they had been run through by a steamroller, either.

When Tezuka finally found the front door keys, Kaidoh sat up in relief.

"Pshhhhh." Was the extra long hiss from him at the anticipation of getting inside the house and out of the heat. His dark, green-mottled tail swept the porch eagerly.

Tezuka frowned when he realized that the front door was unlocked, contrary to what he had done by locking it that morning after his parents had gone to work and he, to school. He gave a sharp glance to the calico cat that was Fuji, who beamed right back at him. If there was a cat who could unlock a door quite deviously, he was sure it would be Fuji. However, he was relieved when, upon opening the door, he was not faced with a scene of mass destruction. Everything seemed to be in place and where it was supposed to be.

He was quite startled when three furry forms streaked past him. One landed squarely on the sofa, scattering a tiny amount of loose dark green fur on the white cushion. One shot straight into the kitchen and Tezuka stoidly refrained from wincing when he heard a 'thump' which probably indicated that the cat had ran head on into the controversial wood cupboard, upon which many guests had also studded a toe or two. The last cat vanished upstairs in a flick of its tail, apparently seeking some more familiar and comforting surroundings.

Tezuka sighed inwardly and replaced his house keys in his pocket. Fuji swayed through the front door, looking quite pleased with himself.

"How did you unlock the front door?" Tezuka asked the cat sternly, not really expecting a reply. He watched as Fuji oblingly showed him how he had achieved the feat, leaping lightly up on the decorative table beside the door and tapping the doorknob with one furry paw without actually showing his Captain how he had gotten the lock to spring.

Tezuka had hoped that being turned into a cat had idiotfied and sadisticfied the tensai of Seigaku, but apparently that was not the case. He turned away from Fuji, who had a disgustingly amused smile on his furry little face, and went to his bedroom.

It wasn't long before Momoshiro appeared at the door of his room, a pleading expression on his whiskered face as his tummy rumbled, alarmingly loud. Oh. The violet-eyed cat was probably starving, and now that Tezuka thought back on it, he was sure neither he nor his parents had left anything out for the cats. He felt a sudden stab of guiltiness.

He proceeded to the kitchen with the cats in tow, searching the cupboards for food that a cat could safely eat. Having no pets in his household, and therefore not having any cat food, Tezuka gave them some dry biscuits, which Momoshiro, prominently, seemed to wolf down at an alarming rate. Tezuka made a note to purchase tins of cat food, and to remember to charge the four for the cost of feeding them while the situation lasted.

His parents came home then, and Tezuka had to bundle the four cats into his room as his parents didn't feel extremely comfortable with the animals. He made sure to close the door tightly after him, but he no doubt knew that Fuji could pry the door open had he any mind to.

"I'm glad Tezuka-buchou came home when he did." Momoshiro belched and sighed, flopping down on his belly. "Otherwise we might've been stuck outside until goodness knows when."

"I want Ponta." Ryoma grumbled, curling up into a ball in one corner. "I always have Ponta after dinner."

"I'd prefer it if Inui-sempai turned us back." Momoshiro remarked. "I mean, being a cat and all is fun, but it gets tiring after a while. Everyone else is so much bigger than us."

"I'm sure Inui-sempai will come up with something soon." Kaidoh commented. "Maybe he's working on the juice antidote now."

Immediately, the image of Inui bending over a bubbling, frothing liquid in a dark and sinister room popped into everyone's minds, and as one, they shuddered, even Fuji. They hoped that the antidote that Inui was working on was effective, and that they wouldn't have to drink countless of nasty, foul-tasting Juices for nothing.

They lounged around in the room, waiting for Tezuka-buchou to return. Momoshiro and Kaidoh started out by playing a gentle tug-o-war using one of the hand towels in the bathroom, which rapidly turned to an outright war and both cats hissed, spat and scratched each other in an attempt to win the towel over.

"Those two will always be at each other's throats, wouldn't they?" Fuji remarked in amusement as he padded over to Ryoma, who was still cranky about his lack of Ponta. A ripping sound filled the air. "Dear me, now they've gone and torn the towel."

In the distance, they heard the peal of the telephone, the sound of someone walking across to pick the jangling receiver up, then the muted voice of a person floated dreamily up the stairs and squeezed under the door. Ryoma cocked his head to one side.

"Oh. They've stopped." He observed as Momoshiro and Kaidoh both stopped pulling at the same time, both too tired to continue the battle over the towel. The said article was lying in a pitiful heap on the floor, dirty and shredded beyond repair.

The door to the bedroom opened, and Tezuka came in. He frowned at the sight of the ruined towel, but said nothing as he moved aside to allow another person to come in.

Inui Sadaharu, data genius of the famous Seishun Gakuen's tennis team, stepped into the room, carrying a large jar which contained the_ in_famous Juice, this time looking for all the world like a mutated alien as one moment it was unnaturally still, then the other moment, without Inui moving, the Juice slapped angrily against the side of the jar, leaving trails of what looked like slime as it slid back down to the bottom of the jar. The colour was something that no one could describe, a cross between ochre-red, a dark sabre colour, and with a sprinkling of pink dots. Momoshiro and Kaidoh gulped audibly.

"Inui, I hope this works." Tezuka said omniously, and Inui smiled very sinisterly as he carefully placed the jar on the floor.

**TBC**

**You know what to do. Typos, weird grammar, thoughts and suggestions - pack them in a review, please!**

**Thank you!**

**PS: Idiotfied and sadisticfied are not real words. **


	5. Shadowing buchou to Rikkaidai

**Chapter 5 to those who have been waiting so patiently. To leave you to reading without any further ado...**

**Onwards! **

"There is a 53 percent chance of it succeeding." Inui assured the frowning buchou of Seigaku, whipping out four little bowls from the bag he had slung over one shoulder, and proceeded to pour the Juice into the bowls.

"53?" Tezuka asked, still frowning. "That's only a slight margin past a half-chance of success."

"According to my calculations, if I'm right, and I usually am, 53 percent if the best we can hope for for now." Inui recapped the jar and beamed down at the four cats, pen and notebook poised and ready. "The match with Hyoutei is two days from now, and we haven't told Ryuzaki sensei the truth why four of our players have mysteriously not attended tennis practice for the past few days."

Tezuka pinched the bridge of his nose in a sigh. He'd forgotten momentarily about the match. Two more days...he really hoped Inui's Juice worked properly this time. Perhaps he should consider banning the use of Inui Juice as a 'motivator' for the regulars to practice, especially if they caused unforseeable problems such turning the boys into furry little animals.

The two human Seigaku regulars watched as one honey-furred cat finally padded his way to one of the bowls. Trust Fuji to take the lead. As everyone watched with bated breath, he licked up the small amount of Juice, pink tongue curling over the tip of his nose to catch a drop that had landed there.

Ryoma followed his sempai's example obediently, and soon after, Momoshiro and Kaidoh hesitantly slurped up the Juice after seeing no (immediate) side effects of the liquid. Inui looked vaguely disappointed that no results could be observed. His pencil didn't seem to stop recording, though, as he wrote line after line of scrawled, barely legible handwriting.

"Nothing happened." Tezuka stated flatly after ten minutes had gone by.

"Perhaps ingredient number 29.001.5 wasn't measured out properly." Inui murmured, looking up briefly to inspect the felines before dropping his gaze to his notebook. Even Tezuka was slightly unnerved by the bespectacled teen's mutterings. Ingredient 20.001.5? That sounded...highly complicated. Even so, Inui's juice had failed to turn the cats back into their human selves. What was even odder was that the Juice seemed to have no effect whatsoever. Usually, if Inui's juice didn't kill, it crippled. More or less.

"It didn't work." Momoshiro complained in disappointment. He flopped down on the floor beside Ryoma, his tail swishing lazily across his back. "It didn't even make us pass out."

"Inui-sempai must be slipping." Ryoma said. He was half-relieved, and half-disappointed. He couldn't decide whether he wanted to turn back into a human, or whether he felt lucky that he had escaped a horrible pain by Inui Juice.

Half an hour slipped by, and it was apparent that the juice, whatever it was, hadn't worked. Inui packed up the Juice, jar and everything, into the bag, and stood to leave.

"Three more days." Tezuka reminded Inui sternly. "Three more days to undo this mess, or else we might have to cancel the match with Hyoutei."

A sudden gleam came into Inui's eyes, and a slow, crafty smile spread across his face. "Don't worry. _Hyoutei_ might just cancel the match themselves."

Leaving the captain and the four cats to puzzle over his words, Inui let himself out of the room.

--

It was a Saturday today, a wonderfully glorious and warm Saturday. Seeing as there were no classes today, Tezuka decided to head out into town. As he pulled a sweater over his head, he remembered that he still had four very predictable and clever cats residing in his bedroom for the time being.

He looked around the room for the said cats. One was basking full out in the sunlight on the windowsill – that one was Ryoma, Tezuka knew, because of the rich dark green fur that fluffed up in the warmth. Another one was lying curled in the ebbing warmth og Tezuka's pillow – that was how Tezuka had gotten a 'wake up' call of sorts from Kaidoh, who had been eager to sleep on something softer than the hard wooden floor. Fuji was nowhere to be seen, but Tezuka's sharp eyes could spy a dark bottlebrush tail (that presumably belonged to Momoshiro) sticking out from under the bed.

"Look here." Tezuka tried putting on his strictest, sternest voice.

Not one of the cats moved. Ryoma continued sun bathing, stretched out in full luxury, Kaidoh was still sleeping in a heap, and Momoshiro's tail twitched once before lying still again. Tezuka suppressed a sigh, and added a bottle of aspirins to his mental shopping list.

Then he felt a heavy fluffy weight attach themselves to his legs, and he saw Fuji rubbing a happy cheek against his ankles. The cat was wound around his legs, purring in contentment even as his sharp cerulean eyes lay hidden behind the eyelids.

"Fuji, I'm going out for a short while. I'm going to leave food downstairs in the kitchen, and you can help yourselves to whatever's in the bowl. Do _not_ruin the house. My parents will throw you out if you do, understand?"

The cat glanced innocently at him. Tezuka really did sigh this time, and reached down to stroke the cat gruffly on his sleek, smooth head.

"Make sure you do what I said." Tezuka said, finally taking his hand away. "And don't leave the house for whatever reason you have in mind."

Fuji did nothing but smile slightly to himself. Deciding that he had told them everything he had to, Tezuka picked up a small carry bag and left the house, carefully locking the bedroom door and the front door after him.

The minute Fuji saw that Tezuka had walked down the driveway of his house, the honey cat leapt up on the windowsill, dislodging Ryoma who fell with a yowl. Ryoma landed on all four paws, naturally, but he was terribly ruffled and irritated by the sudden evict from the sunny spot on the windowsill. He grumbled briefly under his breath as he forcibly licked both front paws.

"Let's go." Fuji said quickly, glancing out of the window to make sure that the target hadn't disappeared from sight entirely.

"Go where?" Ryoma grumbled. Kaidoh-sempai was still sleeping, and so was Momo-sempai. Why had Fuji-sempai chosen to pick on him? He had just started to soak up the warmth, too.

"Quick, before Tezuka-chan goes too far away." Taking a calculated leap, Fuji landed directly on top of the sleeping Kaidoh, causing the poor cat to jump up in fright and tried to take a swipe at the assumed attacker. Fuji paused only to make sure that Kaidoh had well and truly woken up, then he jumped to the floor and swiped under the bed to make Momoshiro come out.

"We're going out again?" Kaidoh asked warily, remembering their ordeal the day before at the mercy of the huge humans they had encountered. "I don't want to go out."

"You have to." Fuji insisted, going to the door via means of the chair-desk-doorknob method. Again, with the help of his sharp, tiny claws and deft twisting, Fuji the cat managed to unlock the door. He trotted out of the room, looking back expectantly when none of the other cats followed him. "Well?"

Fuji-sempai could pack a lot of meanings into a one-syllable word. Ryoma felt a shiver trail down his spine, and he shook his fur out. It was better not to get into an argument with his sempai. Quickly, glancing once at his two other sempais, he padded after Fuji.

Momoshiro and Kaidoh followed soon after. Momoshiro paused in the kitchen once, to scarf down the food Tezuka had set down for them, but soon abandoned it after having filled his little stomach. They trotted out of the front door that Fuji unlocked and all sleepy thoughts fell away as they sniffed the fresh air and felt the warmth of the sun's rays on their face.

"He went that way." Fuji said immediately, making a bee line to the corner on their right. The three cats trailed after the tensai neko, sniffing hard as they went. Their sense of smell had sharpened with the addition of cat abilities, and they could pick up a faint whiff of their buchou as they walked along the sidewalk.

"Why do we have to follow buchou when he goes out?" Momoshiro complained. "He did tell us to stay in the house, right?"

"Silly, isn't this much more fun?" Fuji smiled without turning back. "Tezuka-kun must be doing something secretive, to leave us alone at home. Aren't you the least bit curious?"

Ryoma decided to neglect mentioning the saying of how 'curiosity killed the cat' as he felt that it was slightly inappropriate for the situation. He was a cat now, and he sure as hell didn't want to get killed. Or at the very least, he wanted to die _after _he had defeated Tezuka-buchou, Fuji-sempai, that arrogant Atobe Keigo, Seiichi Yukimura and whoever else was good at tennis. Oh, and his useless excuse for a father, too.

The cats rounded another corner – and spotted the figure of their tall, stern buchou in the near distance. As one, the four cats dived behind a public dustbin, crouching so as to not get noticed. Their buchou didn't seem to have noticed, however. He continued striding to his destination, his carry bag swinging on his shoulder as he walked.

"Where is he going?" Momoshiro hissed, his interest now fully piqued. "The town's in the other direction."

"Considering what lies in _this_ direction..." Fuji mused, "He can only be going to Rikkaidai."

--

Tezuka had the oddest feeling that someone was shadowing him. He looked back once or twice, but he couldn't see anyone (or anything) suspicious. Occassionally, there wasn't even anyone behind him. He wondered if he was briefly losing his sanity, thanks to having had to put up with his regularly insane regulars, four of whom had turned into sleek felines.

He dismissed the disturbing thought from his head, and walked straight into the almost deserted school grounds of Rikkaidai.

"So buchou _was _going to Rikkaidai!" Kaidoh hissed in surprise.

"What for?" Momoshiro asked. "Rikkaidai's not a very nice place to be."

"It looks neat enough to me." Fuji said cheerily. He walked straight past the open school gates, keeping an eye out for the elusive Tezuka. "And since we're here anyway, let's go have a look around."

The cats didn't need to hide every few seconds to avoid the scrutinity of students since there weren't any students around anyway. Sure, they spotted the odd group of sports students using the field, but they dodged those pretty easily. The problem was that they had lost Tezuka-buchou while hopping around the various dust-bins, lamp posts and pillars around the school grounds.

"_Now _what are we going to do?" Momoshiro grumbled, eyeing a potential food source – the dust-bin.

"Can we go back now?" Kaidoh asked hopefully. His hopes were dashed when Fuji continued craning his head to look around for Tezuka.

"Just a bit more." Fuji soothed the ruffled cat, patting one of Kaidoh's ears with a paw. "Besides, wouldn't it be fun to look around Rikkaidai's school grounds? We might even get to meet Yukimura!"

"Well, well. What do we have here?"

The sound of the new voice froze all four cats.

"_Cats! _We have _four cats _wandering around school?"

"Oh my goodness. What are we going to do with them?"

Stony silence.

Almost afraid to look, Ryoma lifted his head and glanced up. His worst fears were confirmed when he saw a familiar visage of unruly black curls, a mop of red hair, and – _oh –_ Sanada-fukubuchou was there as well, an inscrutable look on his face. Akaya and Marui were peering down at the cats in vivid interest, and Jackal stood slightly away from them, his face wrinkled up in annoyance.

"We're going to be late." He complained, crossing his arms.

"_Sanada-fukubuchou_ is going to be late." Akaya corrected. "We're technically not required at the meeting anyway. Sanada is, and Yukimura's already there."

"It's better to go together as a team." Jackal insisted heatedly.

"Well, we're not going to have a say in whatever Yukimura's planned, so what's the point of going?" Akaya grumbled. "I want to play with the cats. They look cute. Ne, doesn't this one look like that Echizen brat from Seigaku?"

Ryoma froze. Did he _really_ look like his human counterpart?? Why did everyone who met him call him a brat? He wasn't really that bad...right?

"Akaya and Marui can choose not to attend the meeting." Sanada said abruptly. "It's just a casual meeting between the Seigaku captain and Yukimura-buchou, after all."

Ryoma's ears perked up at that. So Tezuka-buchou was here in a meeting with Yukimura from Rikkaidai?

"Jackal, keep an eye on Akaya." Sanada instructed, then left the three Rikkaidai regulars with the cats. Jackal exhaled explosively and glared at Akaya, who beamed a 100-watt smile back at his team mate.

"Why do I always end up babysitting you?" Jackal demanded of Akaya in annoyance.

"Because you like me?" Akaya suggested innocently.

Marui reached out and, before Ryoma could do anything to stop the bubble-blowing kid, picked Ryoma up and sat the cat on his knees, gazing into Ryoma's wide golden eyes.

"Isn't he _cuuute_?" Marui exclaimed suddenly, and gave Ryoma an impromptu hug. "He has, like, the most awesome fur I've ever seen!"

"I like this one." Akaya pointed directly at Fuji, who stared blandly back at him. If Akaya even _thought_ about trying to pick Fuji up, he resolved to claw Akaya's hands off. But Akaya seemed to sense Fuji's murderous intent, and he rocked a little on his heels and he tilted his head to observe the honey cat a bit better.

"What are we going to do with these cats? Let them wander the school?" Jackal asked. Ryoma was trying his best not to be glomped to death by the hyper Marui, hissing until the red-head loosened his tight grip. "Oi, Marui, don't kill the cat."

"I say we take them somewhere safe and...look after them." Akaya proposed. He had this look in his eye which Jackal recognized instantly.

"Killing animals for fun is prohibited." Jackal said immediately. "Besides, they might belong to someone."

"They don't have collars on, right?" Akaya countered. "So technically, they're strays."

"So leave them at a shelter, for goodness sake."

"I want to take _good_ care of them." A smile was spreading over the second-year's face. "Come on, Marui, you can take that cat, Jackal, you get the brown-haired cat, and I'll get the other two."

"Didn't you say that you liked that one?" Jackal asked, puzzled, as he collected Fuji into his arms.

"Yes, but I have a feeling it'll scratch me the minute I try to touch it." Akaya replied, grabbing Kaidoh and Momoshiro before they could make a break for escape. "Isn't that odd?"

"Just don't do anything weird towards them." Jackal warned as Fuji nestled smugly in his arms, a catty beam on his face. He looked down at the cat he was holding. He had a feeling that these cats had more to them than what could be seen.

"Let's go to the clubhouse." Akaya decided, a cat tucked under each arm, and Jackal and Marui followed, Marui still crooning over a disgusted Ryoma.

**TBC**

**I think I shall finish this story up in a couple more chapters. Have got the fuzzy outline planned, but not solid yet. I'm not a very creative person. I have cat ears in almost every PoT story, which is the extent of my creativity. Any typos, do let me know and I'll fix them as soon as possible. I read through this once and caught some of the more obvious typos, but I shall have to rely on you faithful readers to catch the rest. Kudos to the God of Typos (me) for making more work for you...XD**

**Please do let me know what you think. Comments, criticism, constructive advice are all welcome. Thank you! **


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